Vladimir Feltsman Plays Bach LINER NOTES

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I

Prelude in C major, BWV 846

Fugue in C major, BWV 846

Prelude in C minor, BWV 847

Fugue in C minor, BWV 847

Prelude in C-sharp major, BWV 848

Fugue in C-sharp major, BWV 848

Prelude in C-sharp minor, BWV 849

Fugue in C-sharp minor, BWV 849

Prelude in D major, BWV 850

Fugue in D major, BWV 850

Prelude in D minor, BWV 851

Fugue in D minor, BWV 851

Prelude in E-flat major, BWV 852

Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 852

Prelude in E-flat minor, BWV 853

Fugue in D-sharp minor, BWV 853

Prelude in E major, BWV 854

Fugue in E major, BWV 854

Prelude in E minor, BWV 855

Fugue in E minor, BWV 855

Prelude in F major, BWV 856

Fugue in F major, BWV 856

Prelude in F minor, BWV 857

Fugue in F minor, BWV 857

Prelude in F-sharp major, BWV 858

Fugue in F-sharp major, BWV 858

Prelude in F-sharp minor, BWV 859

Fugue in F-sharp minor, BWV 859

Prelude in G major, BWV 860

Fugue in G major, BWV 860

Prelude in G minor, BWV 8610

Fugue in G minor, BWV 8610

Prelude in A-flat major, BWV 862

Fugue in A-flat major, BWV 862

Prelude in G-sharp minor, BWV 863

Fugue in G-sharp minor, BWV 863

Prelude in A major, BWV 864

Fugue in A major, BWV 864

Prelude in A minor, BWV 865

Fugue in A minor, BWV 865

Prelude in B-flat major, BWV 866

Fugue in B-flat major, BWV 866

Prelude in B-flat minor, BWV 867

Fugue in B-flat minor, BWV 867

Prelude in B major, BWV 868

Fugue in B major, BWV 868

Prelude in B minor, BWV 869

Fugue in B minor, BWV 869

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II

Prelude in C major, BWV 870

Fugue in C major, BWV 870

Prelude in C minor, BWV 871

Fugue in C minor, BWV 871

Prelude in C-sharp major, BWV 872

Fugue in C-sharp major, BWV 872

Prelude in C-sharp minor, BWV 873

Fugue in C-sharp minor, BWV 873

Prelude in D major, BWV 874

Fugue in D major, BWV 874

Prelude in D minor, BWV 875

Fugue in D minor, BWV 875

Prelude in E-flat major, BWV 876

Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 876

Prelude in D-sharp minor, BWV 877

Fugue in D-sharp minor, BWV 877

Prelude in E major, BWV 878

Fugue in E major, BWV 878

Prelude in E minor, BWV 879

Fugue in E minor, BWV 879

Prelude in F major, BWV 880

Fugue in F major, BWV 880

Prelude in F minor, BWV 881

Fugue in F minor, BWV 881

Prelude in F-sharp major, BWV 882

Fugue in F-sharp major, BWV 882

Prelude in F-sharp minor, BWV 883

Fugue in F-sharp minor, BWV 883

Prelude in G major, BWV 884

Fugue in G major, BWV 884

Prelude in G minor, BWV 885

Fugue in G minor, BWV 885

Prelude in A-flat major, BWV 886

Fugue in A-flat major, BWV 886

Prelude in G-sharp minor, BWV 887

Fugue in G-sharp minor, BWV 887

Prelude in A major, BWV 888

Fugue in A major, BWV 888

Prelude in A minor, BWV 889

Fugue in A minor, BWV 889

Prelude in B flat major, BWV 890

Fugue in B flat major, BWV 890

Prelude in B flat minor, BWV 891

Fugue in B flat minor, BWV 891

Prelude in B major, BWV 892

Fugue in B major, BWV 892

Prelude in B minor, BWV 893

Fugue in B minor, BWV 893

ART OF FUGUE, BWV 1080

Contrapunctus No. 1

Contrapunctus No. 2

Contrapunctus No. 3

Contrapunctus No. 4

Contrapunctus No 12: Canon allá Ottava

Contrapunctus No. 5

Contrapunctus No. 6: Stile francese

Contrapunctus No. 7: per Augmentionem et

Diminutionem

Contrapunctus No. 13: Canon allá dúo decima

in Contrapunto allá Quinta

Contrapunctus No. 8

Contrapunctus No. 9: allá Duodécima

Contrapunctus No.10: allá Decima

Contrapunctus No. 11

Contrapunctus No. 15: Canon per

Augmentionem in Contrario Motu

Contrapunctus No. 14: Canon allá Decima.

Contrapunto allá Terza

Contrapunctus No. 17a: Rectus

Contrapunctus No. 17b Inversus. Alío modo

Fuga a 2 Clav

Contrapunctus No. 16a: Rectus

Contrapunctus No. 16b: Inversus

Contrapunctus No 18: Modo Fuga a tre soggetti

(pause)

Contrapunctus No. 13ª: Inversus. Alío modo Fuga a

2 Clav

Contrapunctus No. 13b Rectus Alío modo Fuga a 2

Clav

15 Two Part Inventions, BWV 772-786

Invention No. 1 in C Major, BWV 772

Invention No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 773

Invention No. 3 in D Major, BWV 774

Invention No. 4 in D Minor, BWV 775

Invention No. 5 in E-Flat Major, BWV 776

Invention No. 6 in E Minor, BWV 778

Invention No. 7 in E Major, BWV 777

Invention No. 8 in F Major, BWV 779

Invention No. 9 in F Minor, BWV 780

Invention No. 10 in G Major, BWV 781

Invention No. 11 in G Minor, BWV 782

Invention No. 12 in A Major, BWV 783

Invention No. 13 in A Minor, BWV 784

Invention No. 14 in B-Flat Major, BWV 785

Invention No. 15 in B Minor, BWV 786

NOTES

H. L Mencken's voluminous journalism includes an occasional foray into music criticism. In 1912, writing in a magazine called The Smart Set, Mencken attempted to summarize the aesthetics of several composers in some tiny prose poems. Thus Beethoven became “The glory that was Greece ... the grandeur that was Rome ... a laugh. " Chopin was represented by "Two embalmers at work upon a minor poet ... the scent of tubcroses ...Autumn rain" and Debussy by "A pretty girl with one blue eye and one brown eye. " Probably the best- and certainly the most elegant of these encapsulations was the one Mencken provided for Johann Sebastian Bach. "Genesis 1:1, " he wrote, and let it stand.

J.S. Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" is both a massive theoretical exercise and a deeply compelling work of art. It would be hard to imagine any music that has made more of an impression on succeeding generations of composers than "the 48, " as the two books of 24 preludes and fugues in every major and minor key have long been abbreviated. Chopin is said to have begun each morning by playing through the score (and wrote his own album of 24 Preludes, the celebrated Opus 28). Composers such as Max Reger and Paul Hindemith built entire aesthetics on or around a conception of contrapuntal grandeur that can be traced back directly to the WTC while Dmitri Shostakovich fashioned his own distinctive set of Preludes as a modern-age answer to Chopin and Bach. More recently, we have had Wendy Carlos' "Switched on Bach, " and the composer John La Montaine has even created his own electronic version of the complete “Well-Tempered Clavier.”

Most biographers believe Bach wrote this, his largest keyboard work, for the clavichord. Wanda Landowska scoffed at the idea: “The 'Well-Tempered Clavier, rich, colorful, and ever changing, with the broad polyphony of its fugues arrayed in choirs -- how could it be confined to the limited domain of the clavichord when Bach had a harpsichord at his disposal?"

Well, maybe. But what about the piano? We know Bach heard an early version of the fortepiano late in his life but certainly not by 1722, when he finished the first book of the “Well-Tempered Clavier” (the second volume dates from 1744). And so the debate about whether Bach should or should not be played on the piano will probably stretch on for years.

Of all the great composers, Bach was probably the least concerned with the actual sound of his music; indeed, he was one of the premier self-transcribers of all time. He happily and successfully rearranged violin concertos for the keyboard and recycled choruses into sinfonias. His principal interests seem to have been melody and structure, rather than the timbres of his forces; for this reason, his music survives a multiplicity of processing. Bach's compositions work on the synthesizer, in versions for jazz chorus, even in arrangements for saxophone quartet. And who is to say whether the composer would or would not have approved?

Bach had a specific didactic goal in mind when he conceived the "Well-Tempered Clavier." As Dr. Joseph Braunstein has observed: "With the growth of instrumental music in the 17th century, harmony had become increasingly more complex, modulating to

keys beyond those with one or two sharps or flats, which had previously been the only ones in common use. Keyboard instruments tuned according to the mean-tone system, a method of tuning by perfect thirds that had come into general use around 1500, could not be played in these more remote keys without sounding badly out of tune.... The concept of tuning according to 'equal temperament’ i.e. the division of the octave into 12 equal semitones, thus allowing acoustically acceptable playing in all keys, had been advocated by the Spaniard Ramos de Pareja in 1482. It took more than two centuries for the idea to be generally accepted. "

And so Bach set out to write two pieces in every key, beginning with a prelude and fugue in C major, following with a prelude and fugue in C minor, then ascending a half step to do the same in C-sharp major, followed immediately by C-sharp minor, then up another half step to D major and so on until all of the major and minor keys have had their own splendid moments. Braunstein observes that the tonalities of C sharp minor, D-sharp minor, F-sharp minor G-sharp minor are to be found nowhere else in Bach's music:" It was Bach's aim to demonstrate, in a systematic manner, the usability of all 24 keys within a large musical framework. "

Picking and choosing among the glories of the WTC is a frivolous endeavor, rather akin to naming a "favorite" Alp. Still, it may interest some listeners to recall the magnificent use Ingmar Bergman made of the moody and complicated eighth fugue in his film

"Wild Strawberries" (and the rather less effective purpose to which Gounod put the opening Prelude in C major in writing his thrice-familiar Ave Maria"). With the exception of the G-sharp minor fugue (No. 18), all of the minor-key fugues end in major (through the familiar device of the "Piccardy third"). And Bach saves his longest and grandest fugue -- No. 24 in B minor-key – last, prefiguring the Romantic-era demand for cosmic finales.

But enough. Ezra Pound once described a classic as something that "remains news." The "Well-Tempered Clavier" fits that criterion and more than 250 years after its creation, it shows no signs of losing its status.

It seems of little consequence to indulge in the academic parlor games of Who Did What When?" or "Spot That Influence!" I'd rather reflect upon the extraordinary diversity we find preludes and fugues -not only when we compare one selection to the next but also we listen to different performances of the same piece.

For our purposes, then (since I am writing here about Bach's music rather than reviewing Vladimir Feltsman's performances), let's limit our discussion to recordings of the complete Well-Tempered Clavier that are at least a quarter century old. Speaking generally, harpsichordist Wanda Landowska brings out a magisterial, haunted-house grandeur while her fellow harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick summons a tidy (but linear and compelling) elegance from the same music. Pianists such as Edwin Fischer and

Wilhelm Kempff brought out a sweet, legato songfulness while Glenn Gould played with a mixture of detached structuralism and headlong virtuosity.

Every artist, or so it seems, finds his or her own "WellTempered Clavier" and there is always a great deal left to mine. For many years, l was the host of a radio program called "New Old and Unexpected Music" and, when I had the time, I always closed the afternoon with a Prelude and Fugue by Bach - music that managed to be new, old and unexpected, all at the same time. The first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier" was completed in 1722. The second book followed almost 20 years later. Bach scholar Christoph Wolff, writing in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, suggests that this volume may be a sort of glorious after thought: "This companionpiece is less unified than Book One and was partly assembled from existing preludes and fugues, some of them transposed. The freshly composed pieces probably date chiefly from the late 1730s; some of the preludes, particularly, show elements of the gallant style. The work was complete by 1742."

--Tim Page TIM PAGE was the chief classical music critic For The Washington Post and the editor of “Diaries of Dawn Powell" . He was the chief classical music critic for Newsday and a faculty member of The Juilliard School. His books include, "William Kapell" (1992) and "Music From The Road: Views and Reviews 1978 1992."

"Art of Fugue" was never completed because of the death of Bach. However, there is another reason why this work remains unfinished. By definition, art of fugue, as a play of nature itself, is infinite and ongoing there is no end to this play, no completion.

"Art of Fugue" is a scripture, and as such, is open ended. As all scriptures, it is pointing towards one source the source of all from where it came and an expression of which it is. All music of Bach is a direct confirmation of this source and a humble offering to it.

-Vladimir Feltsman

ART OF FUGUE, BWV 1080

Present-day concert audiences know Bach as a great composer, one whose work forms a cornerstone to the canon of Western music. But Bach was also an important musical theoretician, a researcher concerned especially with the seemingly esoteric nature of imitative counterpoint. We cannot properly separate Bach's theoretical work from his composing, for he framed his investigations and findings in compositional terms. A number of Bach's most ambitious works formulate thorough and orderly explorations of contrapuntal possibilities into largescale, logical, aesthetically satisfying formal designs. We find this in the comprehensive examination of tonality and fugal character of The Well-Tempered Clavier, and in the exhaustive contrapuntal treatment of Frederick of Prussia's "royal theme" in The Musical

Offering. The Goldberg Variations, in which Bach offers an extraordinarily varied contrapuntal elaboration of a single harmonic skeleton, provides a comparable degree of formal rigor, as do also the organ variations on the chorale Von Himmel hoch, with their succession of increasingly complex canons based on the chorale melody. But in some ways Bach's most impressive work of this sort, because it is the most rigorously constructed, is the compendium of fugal technique undertaken in Art of Fugue, BWV 1080. Comprised of some fourteen fugues and four strict canons, all constructed around the same distinctive theme, The Art of the Fugue gives a practical exposition of the venerable techniques of counter point: contrapuntal imitation (canon) at different pitches; thematic inversion (turning a melody upside-down, as it were, so that its contours rise where formerly they fell, and rhythmic augmentation and diminution (elongating or compressing a theme’s rhythms); and melodic variation (altering precise shape of a theme, often through chromatic inflection). With Art of the Fugue, Bach demonstrated these techniques not in some abstract treatise or textbook. That task would be taken up by his student Friedrich Marpurg but in a composition whose high artistic merit befits its title.

The history of Art of Fugue and how Bach intended its performance have provided subjects for a century of musicological investigation. The work is frequently described as Bach's last composition, though the composer wrote a preliminary version of it in the early 1740s, nearly a decade before his death Beginning probably in l748 or l749, Bach undertook a revision of

the work in order to prepare it for publication. At this time he also expanded the composition by writing several additional movements. These last include an imposing fugue using three contrasted subjects, which the composer did not live to complete. Bach did not specify explicitly how he wished Art of Fugue to be played. In his manuscript and in the first printed edition, which appeared in 1751, the music is laid out in open score that is, with each fugal voice" occupying a separate staff and no instrumentation indicated. This ambiguous scoring led some early Bach scholars to speculate that the composer intended the volume as a purely theoretical or didactic work, though that possibility seems unlikely in light of Bach's practical approach to his art and the music’s arresting beauty. Harpsichordists, organists and a few pianists have laid claim to the opus, which is performable (though not easily) on a keyboard. The passing years have seen also many arrangements for instrumental ensembles of various configuration.

There can be no serious objection to performing the work on the piano, though this instrument did not exist during Bach's lifetime. Bach showed himself very flexible in arranging his compositions for different instruments or ensembles. Moreover, Art of Fugue is not idiomatic to any particular instrument; if anything, its music refers back to an old tradition of vocally conceived counterpoint, The music is capably served by the modern piano, which, as Vladimir Feltsman has observed, has a certain neutrality of character that adapts unusually well to Bach's thought.

The ordering of the individual pieces that comprise Art of Fugue has been the subject of much musicological debate. Suffice it to say that the standard published order is suspect on various grounds. As a result, different investigators have proposed different sequences for presenting the music. In deviating slightly from the order of publication, Mr. Feltsman's performance accords with, rather than contradicts, current scholarly opinion.

Regarding the music of the individual canons and fugues, both of which Bach refers to by the Latin term "Contrapunctus" a few words seem in order. Contrapunctus No. l introduces the subject melody on which Bach based the entire work. Here and in the

Contrapunctus No. 2 the composer treats his theme in relatively straightforward four-voice fugues whose successive statements of the thematic subject preserve its original contours. Contrapunctus No. 3, however, inverts the subject (notice how the first interval falls instead of rises) and introduces chromatic alterations that lend the harmonic color of the piece a particular intensity. By Contrapunctus No. 5 we find the original and inverted forms of the subject sounding together in counterpoint. Contrapunctus No. 6 combines fugal texture with the stylized long-short rhythmic sequences traditional to the Baroque-period French overture (as does the D Major fugue from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier, which therefore is a close cousin of this piece). Here Bach uses the original and inverted forms of the subject at different speeds. Contrapunctus No. 7 pursues the latter idea in a more thorough fashion, the original and inverted forms of the subject appearing in both augmented and diminished rhythms (This results in variants of the theme moving at both double and half the diminished rhythms. the subject appearing in both augmented and basic tempo.)

Contrapunctus No. 13 is a two part canon in which the the second line answers the first at the interval of a twelfth ("alla Duodecima"; adjusting for octave answers displacement, this canon yields counterpoint at the interval of a fifth Quinta"). Comparable formulations govern the workings of Contrapunctus No. 14. In Contrapunctus No. 9, the designation "alla Duodecima" indicates the widest span of entrances within a four-part fugal texture. Contrapunctus No. 10 is a double fugue whose two subjects are inversions of each other.

Contrapunctus No. 15 constitutes a virtuoso feat of musical formalism. In it, Bach maintains a strict canonic scheme whereby one "voice" follows the other in inversion and at half speed, doing so note for note (!) the entire length of the piece. Contrapuncti 17 and 16 each entail two fugues, the second being essentially an inversion of the first.

The triple fugue that Bach was unable to complete presents three fugues each on a different theme, laid end to end. The theme of the first of these fugues appears in each of the latter two, and Bach undoubtedly planned to combine all three ín counterpoint at the climax of the piece. Just before the music breaks off, the motive B-A-C-H (corresponding in German musical nomenclature to the pitches B-flat, C, A and B-natural) appears in an inner voice of the four-part texture.

-Notes by Paul Schiavo, 1996

Bach arranged two fugues - Contrapunctus 13a and 13b for 2 keyboards. These two fugues are mirrors of each other. Mr. Feltsman plays both parts of these fugues.

The 15 Two Part Inventions came from the "ClavierBuchlein'" ("Clavier-book") for Wilhelm Friedman Bach. The pedagogic purpose of these creations is very clear. Bach's general title opens with the words 'Candid Instructions.' He addresses his works to ‘lovers of music and to those eager for instructions.’ Inventions, therefore, serve a dual purpose: they help to learn how to 'invent, ' compose and work with basic musical material, and they help to learn how to develop a singing 'cantabile' manner of performance. These pieces are studied by children at a very early age. As a rule, they are the very first works of Bach to which young pianists are exposed.

-Vladimir Feltsman

Vladimir Feltsman is internationally recognized as one of the most important pianists of his generation. A compelling artistic personality hailed for the dramatic impact and individuality of his interpretations, he brings his prodigious technique, command of sonority, and evocative musical imagination to an extensive repertoire at ranges from Bach to 20th century composers and includes more than thirty concertos. Feltsman concentrates on music from the central German tradition, but he is also strongly committed to the performance of new music and has premiered works by contemporary Soviet composers Alfred Schnittke and Nickolai Karetnikov.

Since his dramatic arrival in the United States from Russia in the summer of 1987 and his triumphant Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center debut recitals, Mr. Feltsman has become one of the most sought after pianists on the international scene. He has performed with virtually all the major orchestras in the United States and abroad and is a frequent quest at major music festivals.

Born in Moscow, Mr. Feltsman made his public debut at the age of 12 as soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. His first prize victory in the Concertina International Competition in Prague led to his enrollment in the Moscow Conservatory. Four years later, Mr. Feltsman won the Marguerite Long Competition in Paris, resulting in appearances with all of the major Soviet orchestras, tours of several European countries, and recordings.

Since his arrival in this country, Mr. Feltsman has occupied a Distinguished Chair at SUNY New Paltz, where he teaches a course in piano literature, conducts a series of master classes and instructs a limited number of piano majors. Deeply committed to the education of young music students, Mr. Feltsman has recently establish the foundation for a special music school for gifted children in New York.

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I

Recorded December 9-11 & 16, 1992 at the American

Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York

City

Digital Engineer: Nelson Wong; New York Digital

Recording, Inc.

Hamburg Steinway, Pro-Piano, New York City

Piano Technician: Mary Schwendeman

Design by Kristen Stephen

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II

Recorded June 28, 29 and July 1, 1995 at the

American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City

Hamburg Steinway provided by Mary Schwendeman.

Digital editing by Richard Price, Squires Productions

inc.

Mastered by Richard Price, Squires Productions Inc.

Collection Produced and Engineered by Max Wilcox

Art of Fugue

Produced and Engineered by Max Wilcox

Digital Engineering by Nelson Wong, SoundByte Productions

Digital Editing by Richard Price & Max Wilcox (final two works)

Recorded at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, March 12-14, 1996.

15 Two Part Inventions

This recording was made in the Bolshoi Hall of Moscow Conservatory: September 8-11, 1999.

The Bolshoi Hall is the Alma Mater of Vladimir Feltsman. It is his belief that the atmosphere and acoustics of the hall are the best in the world for piano.

Recording and engineering by Vadim Ivanov.

Editing by Ruslana Oreshnikova. Produced by Vladimir Feltsman.